Swiss Football Association

Swiss Football Association Association Suisse de Football ( fr. ) Associazione Svizzera di Football ( ital. ) Associaziun svizra since ballape ( advises. )

founding	1895
FIFA accession	1904
UEFA accession	1954
president	Dominique Blanc
Secretary General	Robert Breiter
National teams	Gentlemen , women
Clubs (approx.)	1,440
Members (approx.)	281,521
Homepage	www.football.ch

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) ( French Association Suisse de Football (ASF) , Italian Associazione Svizzera di Football (ASF) , Romansh Associaziun svizra da ballape (ASB) ^?^/^I ) is the umbrella organization of the Swiss football clubs . It was founded in 1895. The SFV is one of the most important sports organizations in the country and has 1,440 clubs, 14,500 men's and women's teams and over 280,000 active players. The association is based at the House of Swiss Football in Muri near Bern . Dominique Blanc has been the central president since July 1, 2019 , while his predecessors Peter Gilliéron , Ralph Zloczower and Marcel Mathier are honorary presidents.

The SFV performs its tasks together with the three departments Swiss Football League (SFL), First League (EL) and Amateur League (AL). The three departments of the SFV have their own legal personality and their own bodies, which they set up themselves. The clubs belong to the department in and with which they contest the championship with their first team according to the competition regulations. The SFL clubs belong to non-amateur football. The EL and AL clubs are part of amateur football. At the amateur football level, the SFV is divided into 13 regional associations.

history

FC St. Gallen in 1881

In private English schools between Lausanne and Geneva, teams consisting of Anglo-Saxon students and teachers were formed in the 1860s and 1870s. They played a mix of rugby and football. It is documented from Geneva that football was played in the institutes Château de Lancy (1855 and 1869) and La Châtelaine (1869). Another club founded by English students was the Lausanne Football and Cricket Club , founded in 1860 according to some sources and 1880 according to others . These three clubs took part in the first Swiss football championship in 1897/98 .

This football rugby game came up later in German-speaking Switzerland, and there, too, the English influence was obvious. Locals in the embroidery industry in Eastern Switzerland got to know this game through English students. This is how the oldest still existing Swiss club, FC St. Gallen , came into being in 1879 . He was followed by Grasshopper Club Zurich in 1886 .

The SFV itself was founded in 1895 as the Swiss Football Association , the founding members of which were Lausanne Football and Cricket Club , FC La Villa Ouchy , FC Neuchâtel Rovers , FC Yverdon , FC Excelsior Zurich , FC St. Gallen , Grasshopper Club Zurich , FC Basel , Anglo -American Club Zurich , FC Châtelaine Genève and Villa Longchamp FC Lausanne .

In 1898, 54 clubs were already part of the "Union", as the SFA was called colloquially at the time, and at that time over 100 members had FC Basel , FC Old Boys Basel , United FC St. Gallen , FC Rosenberg St. Gallen , FC Lausanne ( Club Anglais) , FC Zürich and Grashopper Club Zürich . Not only British student clubs, but also school clubs such as the FC der Kantonsschule Frauenfeld or the FC der Kantonsschule Trogen were affiliated.

The SFV was one of the seven national associations that founded the world football association FIFA in 1904 .

The national teams

The men's national team

The SFV national team played their first official international match against France on February 12, 1905 and lost 1-0. The first big success of the "Nati" was the entry into the final of the Olympic tournament in Paris in 1924, where they lost 3-0 to Uruguay. Another milestone was the quarter-finals at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. Switzerland's last World Cup participations were in 1962, 1966, 1994, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. In 1994, 2006, 2014 and 2018 Switzerland reached the last sixteen.

The team was represented four times at the European Championships : 1996 , 2004 , 2008 and 2016 . As the host of the European Championships in 2008, she was directly qualified together with Austria and, as in the previous participations, was eliminated in the preliminary round. At the EM 2016 in France, the Swiss national team reached the round of 16 for the first time.

From July 1, 2008 to the end of June 2014, Ottmar Hitzfeld was the coach of the Swiss senior national team, after his predecessor Jakob Kuhn retired after seven successful years. Since July 1, 2014, the coach of the senior national team has been Vladimir Petković . His contract was extended in March 2016 and is valid until the end of 2017. If Switzerland qualifies for the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia , the contractual relationship is extended up to and including the World Cup .

Participation in world championships

02nd World Cup 1934 in Italy (quarter-finals)
03rd World Cup 1938 in France (quarter-finals)
04th World Cup 1950 in Brazil (preliminary round)
05th World Cup 1954 in Switzerland (quarter-finals)
07th World Cup 1962 in Chile (preliminary round)
08th World Cup 1966 in England (preliminary round)
15th World Cup 1994 in the USA (round of 16)
18th World Cup 2006 in Germany (round of 16)
19th World Cup 2010 in South Africa (preliminary round)
20th World Cup 2014 in Brazil (round of 16)
21st World Cup 2018 in Russia (round of 16)

Participation in European championships

10th European Championship 1996 in England (preliminary round)
12. EM 2004 in Portugal (preliminary round)
13th EM 2008 in Switzerland and Austria (preliminary round)
15th Euro 2016 in France (round of 16)

The women's national team

The women's national team played their first official international match in 1972 in Basel against France. On June 15, 2014, the women's national team celebrated the greatest success in the history of Swiss women's football: qualifying for a football World Cup for the first time . The team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg became the first European team to win the ticket for the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada. There Switzerland made it to the last sixteen.

Without losing points, the women's national team qualified for the first time in 2016 as the sovereign group winners for a European championship , which was held in the Netherlands in summer 2017.

Junior national teams

In 2009, the U-17 junior national team became the first Swiss team to win a world championship. In the final on November 15th, the hosts and defending champions Nigeria were defeated 1-0. As early as 2002, a U-17 selection with the European Championship caused a sensation.

In the age group of the U-21 men , the semi-final qualification at the European Championship 2002 in their own country was one of the best results so far. At the 2011 European Championships in Denmark, the U-21 team made it to the finals. In this game, the Swiss lost 2-0, became vice-European champions and qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

In 2015, the U-17 women's national team reached the final at the 2015 European Championships in Iceland for the first time in the history of the Swiss women's national teams.

The leagues

The highest division in the national league is the Raiffeisen Super League , in which ten teams fight for the championship title.

All men's leagues at a glance

The higher leagues are organized by the three independent departments of the Swiss Football Association, namely the Swiss Football League (SFL), the First League (EL) and the Amateur League (AL). The regional associations are responsible for the lower leagues.

Swiss Football League

The department of the Swiss Football Association responsible for non-amateur football has been using the name Swiss Football League for its games since 2003 . In the 70 years before that, the division was called the National League of the SFV . The SFL is responsible for the organization and implementation of the professional football championships in the two highest Swiss leagues, the Super League and the Challenge League . The SFL aims to promote non-amateur football and top junior football and, together with its 20 member clubs, forms the strong backbone of Swiss club football. The headquarters of the SFL is the House of Football in Muri near Bern .

Super League : 10 teams fight for the championship title and European Cup places. The last placed team is relegated to the Challenge League, the second from bottom has to fight the second from the Challenge League in the Barrage to keep the league.
Challenge League : 10 teams. The concept of the league aims to ensure that a few top teams compete for places in the Super League, while the others are dedicated to training young athletes. The first in the table moves up directly to the Super League, the second in the table contests the barrage against the second from bottom of the Super League. The bottom of the table is relegated to the Promotion League .

Together with 23 other national professional league associations, the Swiss Football League is a founding member of the international World Leagues Forum , which was founded in Zurich in February 2016 , the aim of which is, among other things, to bundle the interests of the professional leagues and to express their common views in front of FIFA and other institutions To represent sport and politics.

First League

Promotion League : The Promotion League, consisting of 16 teams, is the third division in Switzerland. From this league onwards, second teams (U-21s etc.) are also eligible (in the Promotion League a maximum of four). The first placed will be promoted to the Challenge League at the end of the season, the two teams at the bottom of the table will be relegated to the first division.
1st league : The regional top teams play in the 1st league. There are three groups with 14 teams each. Eight teams play promotion games for two places in the Promotion League , two teams per group have to enter the second league interregionally .

Amateur league

2nd league interregional (usually referred to as 2nd league inter ): Regional amateur teams from different regions play in this league. The game is played in 6 groups of 14 teams each.

Regional leagues

The 2nd league is the highest league, which is played by the regional associations. There are two groups in the largest associations.
3. League : In the second highest regional league there are a different number of groups per association.
4th division : The second lowest division.
The 5th league is the lowest division in all of Switzerland.

Table overview

Status: 2017/18

Strength class	designation	Main sponsor	Affiliation
1.	Super League	Raiffeisen	Swiss Football League
2.	Challenge League	Brack.ch	Swiss Football League
3.	Promotion League	Cerutti il Caffè	First League
4th	1st League		First League
5.	2nd interregional league		Amateur league
6th	2nd league		Regional associations
7th	3rd league		Regional associations
8th.	4th league		Regional associations
9.	5th league		Regional associations

All women's leagues at a glance

Top football

National League A : The top division in women's football in Switzerland. 8 teams play against each other twice in the first and second round, so that there are 28 rounds. The first placed is Swiss champions, while the last placed has to be relegated to the National League B. As a result of the UEFA five-year ranking, in addition to the champions (round of 32), the runner-up (qualification) is currently also qualified for the UEFA Women's Champions League. UEFA Women's Champions League .
National League B : The second highest division in women's football in Switzerland. 10 teams play against each other three times. The master moves up to the national league A, the last and penultimate move down to the first division.
U-18 : The division for the youngsters of the National League A teams.

Amateur league

1st league : 2 groups of 12 teams. The group winners are promoted to National League B.

Regional leagues

2nd league : groups of 12 teams. The highest league played by the regional associations .
3rd league : groups of 10 teams.
4th division : lowest division. Different group sizes.

Cup competitions

The Swiss Men's Cup has been organized since 1925. All Super League and Challenge League clubs are qualified for the main round, in which 64 teams participate. The 1st league, the amateur league and the regional associations determine their participants in pre-qualifications. All teams down to the 5th league are eligible to start.

With 19 cup wins in 32 finals, the Grasshoppers Zurich are the most successful cup team. It is followed by FC Sion with 13 cup wins in 14 finals.

The Swiss Women's Cup has been held since 1975, the record holder with 15 successes is the FFC Bern .

structure

The SFV is divided into 13 regional associations. The teams of the Principality of Liechtenstein play in the Eastern Switzerland Football Association. The only German club in the Swiss Football Association, FC Büsingen , plays in the Zurich Region Football Association.

Aargau Football Association (AFV)
Football Association Bern / Jura (FVBJ)
Central Swiss Football Association (IFV)
Football Association of Northwestern Switzerland (FVNWS)
Football Association of Eastern Switzerland (OFV)
Solothurn Football Association (SOFV)
Football Association of the Zurich Region (FVRZ)
Federazione Ticinese di Calcio (FTC)
Association Fribourgeoise de Football (AFF)
Association Cantonale Genevoise de Football (ACGF)
Association Neuchâteloise de Football (ANF)
Association Valaisanne de Football (AVF)
Association Cantonale Vaudoise de Football (ACVF)

Classification of regional associations

UEFA five-year ranking

Placement in the UEFA five-year ranking ( previous year's ranking in brackets ). The abbreviations CL and EL after the country coefficients indicate the number of representatives in the 2019/20 season of the Champions League and the Europa League .

15. ( 16 ) Croatia ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 27.375 - CL: 1, EL: 3Croatia
16. ( 17 ) Denmark ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 27.025 - CL: 1, EL: 3Denmark
17. ( 12 ) Switzerland ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 26,900 - CL: 2, EL: 3Switzerland
18. ( 19 ) Cyprus ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 24.925 - CL: 1, EL: 3Cyprus Republic
19. ( 25 ) Serbia ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 22,250 - CL: 1, EL: 3Serbia